Thread: Powder for 22-250

@WillB that is impressive velocity that you are obtaining with the IMR 8208 XBR in your shorter barrel! Looking at your first post the change in powder has increased the velocity your were seeing with the 2206 H by more than 150 fps. You have to be happy with that?

Interesting that the Norma Oryx wouldn't shoot well in your rifle, I load that projectile in four 223 and five 22-250 rifles and they shoot great in all of them. I guess that is rifles for you!

Your comment about the cratered AR 500 made me laugh. Many years ago at a friendly joint Black Powder and NZDA shoot they had a 16mm steel plate that they said was from an armoured personal carrier. They tried a 30-06 on it to see if it was going to damage it and when there was no damage they said we could all have a shot at it. After we had all tried they realized it had one neat hole right through it. It turned out that my 220 Swift was the culprit as after firing another shot there were two neat holes.

Although I have never shot Barnes projectiles I have heard similar stories as you mentioned.

Yes I'm pretty pleased with that MV. A big improvement over 2206H and groups identical size. I was surprised and disappointed that the oryxes didn't shoot - I did try a really wide range of seating depths so short of adding powder, or I guess taking some away, I don't know what else to try. It's looking to me like a rather picky rifle.

That's a great story about the APC armour - and somewhat alarming from the point of view of a crewman.

It's funny about the Barnes @Micky Duck swears by them, and clearly has no issues. But I have heard those stories from a number of sources too.

@WillB a couple of days ago I was reading through the Barnes reloading manual and it says in there that a barrel needs to be clear of all copper fouling before using Barnes bullets. The jackets of lead cored projectiles are made of gilding metal which is harder than pure copper and it will strip copper off the Barnes projectiles.

Ah ha well that explains it nicely. Amazing coincidence as I am sitting here browsing Barnes 50 gr tsx on the Gunworks website! It must be a sign. 😀

Have you looked at the Speer Gold Dot projectiles? They make them in .224 55 grain.

No I haven’t. I imagine the terminal performance would be similar to the Sierra SBT? I have to admit to a certain fascination with monolithic projectiles for some reason.

Looking on the Speer website the Gold Dot have the same 0.250 BC as the 55gr Sierra SBT.
Barnes suggest a 1:12" twist for their 50 gr TTSX FB projectile but the 50 gr TSX FB may work in a 1:14".

I reckon this rifle is not going to stabilise anything at all marginal for a 1:14. Probably the rational thing to do is load up the SBTs and go hunting!

That sounds like good logic to me! Over the years I have shot over 100 deer with either the Sierra 55 gr SBT (Game King) or the 55 gr Speer Spitzer soft point (#1047). Admittedly all but one of them were neck shot and only one needed a second shot.

Well that’s an inspiration! Was the one you didn’t neck shoot the one who needed a second shot?

No, one large Red hind was on the run at about 100m so I shot her in the chest. She ran 20m at the most and dropped dead. The one that needed a second shot I shot in the neck but took out the esophagus and windpipe but I failed to hit the vertebrae or jugular. I popped another one in the neck and she dropped on the spot.